Trisquel Edu

Trisquel Edu is no longer being developed. It is recommended to use the normal version of Trisquel instead.

Trisquel Edu is a fully free operating system designed for all kinds of educational centers, from primary schools to universities. It is built on the Trisquel 2.2.2 LTS (Robur) branch of Trisquel, and includes a set of educational packages and classroom management tools.

Educational packages

The default installation comes with the GNOME desktop and very few user applications, making it easier for the teacher to have the exact set of programs needed for the students. The programs can be easily installed using a graphical application that includes the following educational bundles:

Management tools

The main Management tools included in Trisquel Edu are iTALC and LTSP.

iTALC - Intelligent Teaching And Learning with Computers

iTALC is a classroom control tool that allows the teacher to remotely view the display of every student in a handy grid. The teacher can interact with the displays (which are updated in real time) in many ways, like remote control, locking, remote program execution, etc. It can also be used to display the selected user's screen with a projector, or broadcast it to the other students' monitors.

LTSP - Linux Terminal Server Project

LTSP is a thin-client environment, comprising a computer (or a set of computers) serving a network-bootable GNU/Linux image, and a set of thin clients that will load the image from the server using PXE (Pre-boot eXecution Environment). The image consists of a minimal client capable of starting a remote X11 user session against the LTSP server. The thin clients are diskless, as all the data is stored and managed on the server. With all of this, you can get the following advantages:

Easier management: The only computer that needs to be managed is the server. It contains all the users, programs and data files, and the diskless clients have no configuration and thus require no maintenance. The students can start the session from any client. If you install a new program on the server, it is instantly available to every client, and the users do not ever need to restart the session.

Scalability: If you need to connect a large number of clients, a set of servers can be set up to work together. Depending of the kind of applications run, a standard server can be host about 30 to 50 simultaneous clients.

Reusing old computers: You can use any computer from the last 10 years or so as a client, as long as its hardware is supported by GNU/Linux and is capable of booting with PXE.

Low power consumption: Instead of using old computers, you can get fanless and diskless thin clients that are low-heat, silent, inexpensive, easy to maintain, and run with less than 10 watts of power, 1/10th of a standard CPU unit.

Further development

According to the meeting 2012-12-18 no further versions are planned for Trisquel Edu. However, user-supported editions are possible if a volunteer is willing to step up as a maintainer.